By John J. Puccio
Here are a few of my absolute favorite classical recordings (listed alphabetically), which the reader may find of interest. They are major, basic-repertoire, warhorse items to be sure. There is a reason why great music is great music, after all, and to have chosen a handful of obscure, esoteric works as personal favorites would have seemed to me pretentious and dishonest. The hard part, of course, was narrowing down the list from thousands of favorites to a precious few, but I did my best.Incidentally, because I value these recordings so much, I own most of them in somewhat hard-to-get and relatively expensive Japanese and German remasterings, but for the purpose of this list I have indicated their availability in domestic releases. For those buyers adventurous enough (and with deep-enough pockets), I suggest trying Amazon Japan, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, Amazon England, and the HMV Shop, Japan. They stock almost everything, but shipping, especially from Amazon Japan, can be a jolt.
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral" (Bohm, Vienna Philharmonic O.) DG
The problem I had here was deciding which of several different recordings of the "Pastoral Symphony" I liked best. The other contenders--Fritz Reiner, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, and Eugene Jochum--made the choice tough, but I went finally with Bohm's gentle, genial approach.
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique (Beecham, French National Radio O.) EMI
No one conveys the spirit, the color, and the humor of this work better than Sir Thomas Beecham.
Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Pollini; Kletzki, Philharmonia O.) EMI
I alphabetized this list, but if I were pinned down to name my single most-favored disc in the world, it would probably be this one. Yeah, I'm a hopeless Romantic.
Chopin: Nocturnes (Rubinstein) RCA
Arthur Rubinstein was a master of Chopin. And while I also love individual Chopin pieces by Pollini, Cliburn, and others, it is Rubinstein who excelled in all areas Chopin. His two-disc set of the complete Nocturnes may seem overly cool, calculated, or precise to some ears and impossibly Romantic to others; to me, however, it sounds just right, and in RCA's latest remastering, it sounds sonically impressive as well.
Debussy: La Mer (Stokowski) HDTT
Leopold Stokowski's 1970 Decca recording of La Mer with the LSO has been a favorite of mine for decades, but it wasn't until HDTT (High Definition Tape Transfers) remastered it that I finally heard it as the old maestro meant it to be heard. It's still not the most-natural sound in the world, but it's close enough, and it enhances what is already a commanding performance.
Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" (Kertesz, London Symphony O.) Decca
Istvan Kertesz recorded the Dvorak Ninth a few years earlier in his career for Decca and did it very well, but this later one is even more mature and more spellbinding.
Giuliani: Guitar Concerto No. 1 (Romero; Marriner, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields) Philips
For a terrific pick-me-up, this delightful little concerto is just the thing, and no one has done it up better than Pepe Romero, with Marriner and the Academy.
Handel: Water Music (Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra) Harmonia Mundi
Everyone has to have a copy of Handel's most-famous orchestral music in their collection, and for me there is none finer than McGegan's recording with the Philharmonia Baroque played on period instruments.
Haydn: Symphony No. 100 "Military" (Jochum, London Philharmonic O.) DG
I believe you may only find this recording on CD in the complete set of Jochum's Haydn "London Symphonies," but the whole set is worth the money in any case.
Holst: The Planets (Previn, London Symphony O.) Hi-Q or EMI
This has long been an audiophile demo piece for me, and it remains so.
Ketelbey: In a Monastery Garden (Lanchbery, Philharmonia O.) EMI
In the silent days of Hollywood, filmmakers loved to recommend Ketelbey's music to accompany their movies. It's pure schmaltz and wonderful listening.
Lehar: The Merry Widow (Schwarzkopf; Matacic, Philharmonia O.) EMI
One of the most-charming operettas ever written, filled with light, frothy tunes, perfectly captured by Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and company in this classic set.
Mahler: Symphony No. 9 (Barbirolli, Berlin Philharmonic O.) HDTT or EMI
The Mahler Ninth was probably Sir John Barbirolli's best recording ever with the Berlin Philharmonic, and it's ravishing all the way around.
Massenet: Le Cid, ballet music (Fremaux, City of Birmingham Symphony O.) EMI or Klavier
Really fun stuff in outstanding sound. However, the disc may be a bit hard to get anymore.
Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Klemperer, Philharmonia O.) EMI or EMI Japan
Some classical-music listeners tend to think of Otto Klemperer as a rather dour, straightlaced conductor, but one listen to this delicate, light-as-a-feather performance will prove otherwise.
Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro (Taddei, Moffo; Guilini, Philharmonia O.) EMI
I don't know that anyone has matched Carlo Maria Giulini in Mozart opera interpretations. It's maybe the only opera I can listen to straight through in a single sitting.
Mozart: Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" (Jochum, Boston Symphony O.) DG
When DG issued Eugene Jochum's Mozart "Jupiter" Symphony on LP in 1973, it went straight to the top of every critic's list of recommendations and stayed there for years. What's more, it's coupled with probably the best Schubert "Unfinished" Symphony ever recorded, making it a must-buy. Yet as of this writing DG have never released it on CD in America. Astonishing. If you're interested, the disc is available from Germany (in a lovely little Digipak that duplicates in miniature the original album cover).
Paganini: Violin Concerto No. 1 (Rabin; Goossens, Philharmonia O.) EMI set, EMI France set, or EMI Japan
Here's another major studio oversight. Michael Rabin's performance of Paganini's Violin Concerto is the liveliest, peppiest, zippiest, most-frolicsome you'll find anywhere, yet EMI (now Warner Classics) offer it only in a big box set of Rabin's work, not as a single disc. If you want it otherwise, you'll find it on a two-disc French EMI import and on a single disc from EMI Japan.
Puccini: La Boheme (Freni, Pavarotti; Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic O.) Decca
Practically everybody's favorite opera, with everybody's favorite singers. What more could a person want?
Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2 (Previn, London Symphony O.) EMI or EMI Japan
I told you I was a hopeless Romantic, and what symphonic music could be more Romantic than Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, which Previn nails perfectly in what is still state-of-the-art sound.
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (Reiner, Chicago Symphony O.) RCA or JVC
Spectacular, whiz-bang sonics from, amazingly, over half a century ago! Great performance, too.
Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez (Yepes; Argenta, Spanish National Orchestra) HDTT
I loved this recording when I was younger, and I love it today. Thank goodness for HDTT for bringing it back to life sounding better than ever before.
Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 "Organ" (Fremaux, City of Birmingham Symphony O.) EMI or Klavier
Just let those big bass organ notes wash over you like gigantic ocean waves. This one will definitely give your subwoofer a workout, with Fremaux offering up the most-exciting interpretation the piece has ever received on disc. The EMI disc is readily available; the Klavier, with slightly more natural sound and stronger bass, is out of print and may be hard to find.
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major "Trout" (Beaux Arts Trio et al) Philips or PentaTone
You can find this "Trout" in regular stereo on Philips or in multichannel on PentaTone. In either case, you will not find anyone doing up this enchanting music better than the augmented Beaux Arts Trio.
Smetana: Ma Vlast (Dorati/Concertgebouw O.) Philips or Newton Classics
As with all of these favorites, you'll come across other interpretations equally good, but this one with Antal Dorati and the Concertgebouw Orchestra strikes me as among the more rewarding.
Strauss, Richard: An Alpine Symphony (Kempe, Dresden Staatskapelle) EMI Japan
Not generally considered one of Richard Strauss's better works (too picture-postcard cute for some listeners), I find it the most pictorial of all his tone poems and endlessly entertaining, especially in the hands of Rudolf Kempe, either with the Royal Philharmonic or his later version here with the Dresden Staatskapelle. (The earlier recording sounds better recorded; the later one better performed.)
Stravinsky: The Firebird (Dorati, London Symphony O.) Mercury
Mercury's sound holds up remarkably well after all these years, and the performance is unmatched in the complete ballet.
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (Bernstein, New York Philharmonic) Sony
The folks at Sony finally remastered Bernstein's classic 1958 Columbia recording, and it sounds splendid. You'll find no better a recording of this familiar score.
Sullivan (with Gilbert): H.M.S. Pinafore (Godfrey, New Symphony O. of London and D'Oyly Carte) Decca
Probably the most fun music of the list, and again done up in well-aged state-of-the-art sound.
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 (Cliburn; Kondrashin, RCA Symphony O.) JVC or RCA
This was the first recording of any complete classical work I ever bought (eighth grade, 1958). I must have been the first (maybe the only) eighth grader in the country to own it (I don't know what possessed me to buy it on the first day RCA released it; I must have read about it somewhere), and I have since bought it in half a dozen other formats, culminating in a JVC XRCD24 audiophile remastering. The regular RCA disc is still plenty good enough, though.
JJP
Thank you for this listing as well as other advice on your site; all excellent material for someone starting out on the classical listening journey.
ReplyDeleteI find this list of more than a little interest, as I actually own a majority of these compositions, but mostly not of the recordings you list. I take them as I find them, usually in a discount bin (unwrapped new Telarcs for $1.95, etc.). A very good list you have here, and we all have our personal "desert island" list, and that's allright. A composition that was a very early introduction to classical music for me, and the composition that changed classical music forever according to a famous conductor I can't remember, is Beethoven's 3rd Symphony, the Eroica. If it had been an LP instead of a CD, I would have worn it out in about a month. I now own several versions of it. Another composition I would have to include in my personal list is Mahler's 2nd Symphony, "Resurrection", Gilbert Kaplan conductor, London Symphony Orchestra, Tony Faulkner recording engineer, MHS 922305K. Mahler gives us a better resurrection viewpoint than major religions do, and when a particularly arrogant minister once said that he could not stand the music of Mahler, I felt like replying, "I'm not the least bit surprised". I have a Telarc recording of Carmina Burana with Robert Shaw, and that recording might make my list as well.
ReplyDeleteAll my "desert island" LP's and a lot more are treated with LAST record preservative, which I would highly recommend, as well as an excellent tracking cartridge such as my Denon moving coil cartridge which tracks at well below most standard moving coil cartridge tracking forces. Both will preserve your record collection. A Denon DL110 will only cost $140, less than a retip cost on most moving coil cartridges, and you must compare it to other brands that cost twice as much or more. No need for a moving coil step-up transformer, as it has enough output to be compatible with most moving magnet phono stages. The slightly more costly DL160 is a gem if you can find one (it replaced a more expensive Grado in my system), being recently discontinued, which I personally use, but the differences between the DL110 and DL160 are minor. No veteran LP audiophile needs an introduction to the Denon DL103, available in several versions for particular tonearms and systems.
The compositions you recommend are "warhorses" that should be available to a large extent in record stores that sell used LP records in major cities. I have found used classical LP's to generally be in much better shape than other genres such as Rock, Country or Jazz. Classical LP's are the best bargains in my LP collection. I met Steven Stone (when he reviewed for Stereophile magazine, at a Denver used record dealer's home), and he uses an affordable classic Denon DL103 cartridge, not one of the megabuck favorite-of-the-month audiophile cartridges as many high-end audio reviewers do. Many audiophiles have used that cartridge for decades, as it seems to keep getting upgraded.
My point is: One of the cheapest ways to get into classical music is through used LP's. VPI HW19, SOTA Comet, Rega Planar, Maplenoll and several other classic turntables are easily found and sound quite good. My setup of VPI HW19 turntable, Audioquest PT6 tonearm (made by Jelco and available as such straight out of Japan for less money, frequently found on eBay), and Denon DL160 cartridge will cost you less than many new audiophile CD/DVD players and that combination is particularly synergistic. Some of my LP's were given to me after owners switched to CD and dumped their LP collections. Denver area thrift shops were once awash in dumped classical LP's. If you live where used LP's are still readily available and cheap, then you can quickly build an LP collection and form your own "desert island" list, but many of the above compositions would most likely be on your list eventually.
Phil
Hello.
ReplyDeleteThank You for sharing your interesting and well-argumented views with us.
I'd like to comment on one of Your picks out of hundreds of thousands recordings. The Pollini/Kletzki/Chopin record was my first positive experience with Chopin- and an extraordibary one it was. Fresh and youthful, virtouosic and deeply felt. AsYou probably have experienced yourself, these first meetings with a work, tend to be the milestone anything else has to be compared to, and only very seldomly surpas.
Yet as I heard- by chance, without having read or heard about it- Krystian Zimermans second DG venture into this work, I was completely mesmerized from start to finish. His tempo-choices are special but genial, his singing tone and grasp of melody and orchestra out of this world. And it was a pick-up orchestra as I remember it, led by the pianist, in a collaboration wich gave the impression of intimate and intense chamber music making, not ping-pong between a sloist an a rather big orchstra. OK, they are ftom Poland all together, and they probably all know their Chopin, but beeing able to rethink the whole matter this convincing, takes real talent, motivation and love.
If you havent heard it, don't deny yourself the experience. Afterwards You will may stick to Pollini as your first and only love, but perhaps, being a man of the world, let in Mr. Zimerman as your maitresse - even experienced and loyal gentleman may have trouble choosing..
Yours
Lars Petersen
Copenhagen
lars_petersen@dadlnet.dk
Incidentally, while the Jochum Mozart "Jupiter"/Schubert "Unfinished" is STILL unavailable on CD here in the U.S., Universal Music does sell it in FLAC download form (as long as you don't mind the pricing being in British Pounds) at http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/us/cat/4697982
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